PatnaDecember 22, 2025 04:39 PM IST
First published on: Dec 22, 2025 at 04:39 PM IST
The jockeying for the Rajya Sabha berths within the ruling NDA alliance in Bihar has already started even though the tenures of five Upper House members from the state is slated to end only in April 2026.
In a bid to assert his party’s claim on a Rajya Sabha seat, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) chief and Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, an NDA ally, has said that he is ready to quit the Union Cabinet “if the HAM(S) is not given its due in the Upper House as promised by the NDA leadership”.
Manjhi urged his son Santosh Suman, a minister in the Nitish Kumar-led state Cabinet, to also give up his ministry over this issue if needed.
“We have done very well in the Bihar Assembly elections and are next to only the BJP in terms of performance. Of the five Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant, the JD(U) and the BJP will get two each while the (Chirag Paswan-led) LJP(RV) will stake claim for the fifth. We have to give up ‘moh (desire)’ of ministries at the Centre and in the state,” Manjhi said at a party event, with Santosh Suman sharing the stage with him.
In the November Bihar Assembly elections, the HAM (S) won five of the six seats it contested with a 1.17% vote share. Another NDA ally, Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) won four of the six seats it contested with a 1.05% vote share. The Chirag Paswan-led LJP(RV) won 19 of its 29 seats with a 4.97% vote share. The two bigger NDA allies, the BJP and the JD(U), won 89 and 84 seats respectively.
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Pointing out that the RLM was “accommodated properly” by the NDA leadership despite accounting for just four MLAs, sources within the HAM(S) said there was “nothing wrong in seeking a Rajya Sabha berth with five legislators”. “We need to throw our hat in the ring before the issue is settled among other NDA partners. We are also better placed in the Lok Sabha with one MP while RLM has none after Kushwaha lost the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Karakat,” a source said.
With the numbers firmly stacked in favour of the NDA, which won 202 of the 243 seats in the state Assembly elections, it is likely to bag all five Rajya Sabha seats in the elections to be held next year. These seats would be vacated after the retirement of five MPs including the JD(U)’s Ramnath Thakur and Harivansh, the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson, Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, and the RJD’s Amrendra Dhari Singh and Prem Gupta. A candidate would need 48 votes to be elected to the Upper House.
While the JD(U) is expected to renominate Thakur and Harivansh, the BJP is likely to field its national working president Nitin Nabin and renominate Kushwaha. Manjhi has been bargaining for the fifth seat, for which Chirag’s mother Reena Paswan may be nominated. Currently, both the HAM(S) and the LJP(RV) do not have any Rajya Sabha MP.
Manjhi’s comments have not gone down well among his NDA allies, with a JD(U) leader saying that it was “too early to react to overenthusiasm”. “Manjhi ji seems to be too ambitious despite his limited reach in state politics,” he said.
Echoing the JD(U) leader, a BJP leader said the NDA central leadership would deal with the matter. “Manjhi must refrain from making such comments. The Rajya Sabha polls are still some time away,” the BJP leader added.